Adding life to the pacific?
 

Hey Everyone,
I'm new to the Silent Hunter 4 series and I have SH4. I've been playing it for a week and love it but am wondering if it was possible to add a little life to the waters? I don't know how flexible to the games' engine is to adding stuff but I think it would really add another dimension to have ocean life such as sharks, fish, and whales swimming around. It would add something new to help during those long patrols. Also I think it would just been neat to have and to point your hydrophone at to hear to whales speaking. Once again I'm not to sure to its feasibility but it would be neat.

-1st Lt. Brett P.

Hi, and WELCOME ABOARD!:sunny:

What you ask is certainly possible - much of it has already been done in SH3. However, it does take some work, and so far the main modders have been applying their skills to things they think are most important. I'm sure it will happen in time.

My advice, give the stock game "as is" a try for a week, THEN stop. Do your research on the MODs here.

I run the following mods as a basic for my patrols -

Silent Hunter Graphics Mod 1.1
360 DBP Imperial 1.3
Captain Midnights CBS News Version 1.2
Pacific Enviroments 2
RFB [Real Fleet Boat 1.5]
Poul Sound for SH4 - VERY GOOD sound effects
V1.5 Imperial Nomograph

In regard to the "so called" gentleman in the prior post, he gives good, sound advice except for things related to coconuts.

I'm glad you added the "so-called" part - for a minute there I though you were stooping to name calling.

are we sea captains or are we kids playing on the beach

Yes.

No reason we can't be both, is there?

JCC

Either way, both are not afraid to get their feet wet :up:

As far as life in the sea, yes, in SH3 this is done by GWX team. I've not witnessed it myself but I've seen video's of a big whale, looked great. I'm sure in time we will see such things in SH4 as well...

Well, last year i was working on a "texture" mod to add some fish to the sea, but my limited to non-knowledge in shaders make my work dificult...

I achieved a constant and directional movement (depending on camera angle), but never managed to get rid of the "transparency" issues.

Heres a screen though, about an early protoype of the mod with a random (non pacific) fish:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...2029.23_62.jpg

Dang! If you had not said they were fish I would not have known. But that's not meant to be an insult - of course I'm looking at a still screenshot, not seeing them in motion.

I'd say it looks like a great start. There are whales and dolphins, but this is the first time I recall seeing a school of fish.

Video?

Thats exactly the problem, they transparency makes them dificult to see...

Sure, im out of my home now, but later i will try to recod and upload one.

Please allow me to clarify one thing: the "Dang!" was not meant to be a part of the following sentence. Once I realized they were fish, I was truly impressed. That really looks cool, and I think you should pursue it.

And if I may add, probably the only reason why Steve -same as me when I first glanced at the picture- didn't recognize the fish is because we did not expect to see them in the game. But oncce you realize what they are, they do not look bad at all :up: A very promising start :yep:

As promised, heres the video. Now, as i said before, the last image was of a very early prototype, and one of the problems was that the fishes were dificult to see because of their transparency and they "blue color" that mixed with the bakground sea (thats why they are better seen against a "contrasting" objet, like the submarine in the image).
Though i never was able to solve the transparency, i removed most of the blue color of the fishes.

Heres a screenshot of the latest prototype, this time with common fish of the pacific (Herring):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...05-07-08-1.jpg

And heres the video showing them in motion; take note that i activate time compresion in a section of the video to show the constant movement of them:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...h_05-07-08.jpg

Those fish look great! They defiantly add something extra to the ambiance of the game.